TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 



expecting such a denouement. Why the gaff did not 

 hold the fish is more than I can understand. The 

 tines would penetrate a block of pine wood to a depth 

 of half an inch or so; yet the round, yielding body of 

 the fish offered the steel no secure hold. The mus- 

 kellunge did not break away on the first failure, but 

 while I was resetting the gaff he was reviving, and 

 when I brought him near enough for a second attempt, 

 the plunge of the gaff was met with a terrific tackle- 

 destructive surface leap. Mr. Muskie was free, and I 

 filched of a good spoon. Nowadays I prefer a simple 

 old-fashioned gaff, plain and solid, lacking which a 

 good heavy club, built after the shape of a policeman's 

 "billy." 



As has been emphasized several times in these 

 pages, the secret of successful gaffing is the complete 

 exhaustion of the fish. I know that great pike are not 

 regarded very highly as fighters, but I must confess 

 that again and again I have been surprised, not only 

 by the fish's resourcefulness, but by his staying qual- 

 ities as well. More than once I have had a fish hooked 

 on a spoon stay with the game for fifteen minutes. 

 I am sure that other fishermen can narrate incidents 

 where the fish has "come to life" just when the gaff 

 was about to be used, to the chagrin and bitter dis- 

 appointment of the angler. Perhaps it is not the 

 sight of the boat that awakens the fish to renewed 

 strength, but it looks uncommonly like it to me. Oh, 

 I know certain nature students ask with great scorn, 

 "What can a fish know about a boat?" But to my 

 mind the fact that a fish cannot know a boat as a 

 boat proves nothing. Every fisherman will back me 

 up when I say that no sooner does a great pike, or 



107 



